FGV promised to improve PEAT land forest in Indonesia

The world’s largest oil palm grower is being forced to repair more than 1,000 hectares of rain forest

Jakarta, August 30, 2017 – Under strong pressure from customers and the civil society, Malaysian palm oil company FELDA Global Ventures (FGV) has pledged to repair more than 1,000 hectares of PEAT land forests in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. This is the first time that oil palm companies are being forced to repair rainforests and PEAT land forests, in order to keep their business going to supply the global market.

FGV is a subsidiary of FELDA, the largest palm oil grower in the world. Despite implementing a sustainability policy in August 2016, FGV continues to perform deforestation and is damaging PEAT land forests up till May 2017.

Bagus Kusuma, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Forest Campaigner, said:

“The corporate policy of “zero deforestation” is finally starting to bite. This is the first time that palm oil companies have been forced by their customers to recover damaged forests. It is a serious warning that other destructive oil palm companies should pay attention to: deforestation has consequences.”

“Making commitments is an easy thing. FELDA should now develop and implement an action plan within a period of time to realize today’s promises. Companies should wait for reliable evidence that recovery is underway before continuing the purchase. FELDA should also speed up its efforts to resolve worker exploitation in Malaysian plantations and re-certified its palm oil mill with Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). “

Deforestation and PEAT land logging are widely recognized as the root cause of forest fires in Indonesia. West Kalimantan, where FGV operates, was one of the most affected areas during the fire crisis of 2015 and once again is in a vulnerable situation after detected again a serious hot spot.